


Not Quite Different

by panther



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, lycanthropy, post-HBP
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-03
Updated: 2015-03-03
Packaged: 2018-03-16 05:34:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3476363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panther/pseuds/panther
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They tell Bill he is lucky he was not changed when bitten. Bill thinks he might have a different opinion of luck.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Quite Different

Lucky. They tell Bill that he is lucky because he survived the attack and Greyback was not in his werewolf form. Lucky, they tell him as if it makes up for the scars on his face and the animalistic urges he has to fight down each day. Healers monitor him for months and then hospitals are too dangerous and Fleur does it alone with textbooks and a hopeful gaze. Neither did their own equivalent of Magical Creatures. He has a NEWT in Defence Against the Dark Arts and she has her Tournament experience. Her school marks were never going to really reflect her after a year like that. 

He craves meat and at first that it is ok. The French love beef and Fleur is happy to try all her recipes on him, delighted when most are near raw but he eats them anyway when most Brits would turn away. Then it becomes too much. They are in hiding and supplies are hard to get to and the craving is harder to ignore. He snaps at Fleur and spends more time than he should looking over papers so he doesn't need to talk. That is not normal and it certainly is not lucky. 

When Harry calls and they go to Hogwarts his heightened aggression is useful. He fights without care. At the back of his mind Fleur is there but there is also something animalistic telling him to protect her no matter what it takes. Later, when it is over he thinks that is not a fair enough and Fleur has proven herself in combat more than he ever has and he is ashamed. Pride is there, because they have won and then there is the grief because he lost a brother but the guilt lingers. 

When children bully his daughter at her Muggle nursery school he pulls her out and has to fight down the roar in his chest. When his son goes to Hogwarts he fights a depression the healers finally link to the way wolves mourn an empty nest at first. He is not a werewolf. He just has wolf traits. At times it seems he is closer to the wolf than his werewolf cousins. They are aware and fight for their humanity while he denies the wolf is in him at all and so gets dragged in. 

Healers find a way to heal his scars, not that any of his family care about that but it helps Bill. They go on to find a vaccine against Lycanthropy and then a cure after that but there is nothing for Bill. He lies in between human and werewolf and there are few who stand in his shoes. Fleur tries to fit in his shoes but they are always a size too big and they always will be.


End file.
